Eight reasons to attend the Internal Audit Conference 2025 – and how to get the budget.
The Internal Audit Conference is the Chartered IIA’s flagship event of the year – bringing together hundreds of internal audit professionals from every sector and dozens of experts and inspirational speakers. At a time when every organisation is facing a host of established and emerging threats, and when global uncertainty is exacerbating many of these and adding new issues to the mix, you cannot afford to miss it.
This year’s event takes place in London on 8-9 October and an exciting schedule is already taking shape. Whether the issues keeping you – and your board – awake at night concern cybercrime, geopolitical instability and supply chains, artificial intelligence (AI) or sustainability reporting, there is something for you.
Equally, those who currently lead internal audit teams, or who aspire to do so, will also find sessions on how to be an effective advocate, how to leverage the power of AI to enhance audit work, ways to provide cultural assurance and advice on preparing for an external quality assessment.
However, inspiring ideas and expert insights are not the only benefits that attendees gain. Still to be convinced? Consider the following:
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Networking
More than anything else, the Chartered IIA is a resource pool of professional internal auditors. This pool is deep, broad and with many shores. Internal audit can be a lonely profession, but contacts and collaborations with others facing similar challenges (or testing alternative solutions to them) can make a huge difference to how you do your job. And at a personal level, it can also help you to advance your career. Internal auditors who can’t attend the conference in person can buy an online pass for one or both days, but for those who can be there the networking benefits add another dimension of value.
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Earn CPE points
Every member of the Chartered IIA must complete 40 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) a year to retain their professional designation. Attending the conference for the full two days in-person will gain you up to 37 CPE points, while those who attend online on both days can gain up to 34 CPE points.
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Digital access to recorded sessions
All attendees can access sessions they miss online afterwards, so you don’t need to limit yourself to one session when several run in tandem (making it more than a two-day event). This also means that you can refresh your memory or revisit a session you found most interesting.
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Attend the AGM
If you’re a voting member, you can attend the annual AGM and learn more about the people involved in running the Chartered IIA and their plans for its future. This is also a great opportunity to talk to council members if you are interested in getting involved.
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Find out about special interest groups and communities
The Chartered IIA’s community networks hold events throughout the year and offer another layer of support to those who join them. The conference is an ideal opportunity to talk to members and find out how they might be able to help you – and what you could offer them that could benefit others. If you can’t find a community that suits your needs, this is also a chance to talk to Chartered IIA staff and peers about establishing a new one.
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Explore the possibilities of technology
Visit our exhibitors and find out more about what their products can do and how they could help develop your internal audit function. Compare and contrast the options and raise questions in our interactive sessions to find out what others are doing and why.
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Learn and develop team knowledge
For CAEs, the conference may be an opportunity to network and to take time to think about leadership issues and internal audit innovation. However, it may also be an excellent way to build knowledge in your team and develop junior internal auditors. Asking a team member to attend, for example, all the sessions on technology or supply chains and geopolitics, and then give a presentation on what they’ve learned afterwards, develops both the individual and the team.
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Reward and motivate individuals
Knowing that your organisation believes in your potential and wants you to progress is a powerful motivator – and can also attract people to apply for vacancies. Giving team members the opportunity to attend the conference shows that the organisation is willing to invest in them. If you also suggest they become a subject expert and share this knowledge on their return to the office, you indicate that you value what they’ve learned and give them a chance to broaden their experiences and test their understanding.
Budgets
All budgets are tight, but some are tighter than others. This is a universal truth, but if your resources are already overstretched, there are some good arguments in the points above that may help convince managers that your ticket is a worthwhile investment. Remember that tickets are available for day one as well as for the full event. Internal auditors working in the public sector or for a local authority should contact the Chartered IIA events team to ask about special rates.
In particular, consider points 3, 6, 7, and 8. Developing expertise takes time, money and effort. The conference is a comparatively easy and cheap way to do this. The organisation is done for you and everything is in one place over 48 hours. Not only will you hear from experts on a range of important topics, you also gain crucial time out to think about the internal audit function as a whole and how it could be more innovative and efficient – and therefore offer more support to management – in future. If staff feel more motivated and energised by it as well, so much the better.
It may be worth focusing on a specific issue and explaining why you need to know more about it – and how this knowledge will benefit the organisation. For example, evolving supply chain risks may mean that you need to embark on more third-party audits in the near future.
Compare the costs of sending staff on multiple training courses or of attending single sessions on a particular topic in different places over many weeks with the cost of a conference ticket. Also consider the costs of bringing in expert speakers or external support to help your team develop their skills in-house. Include the time spent organising these events, travel or preparation time and the fact that the learning may only develop over several months. Obviously, these options may be better for some needs, but, overall, the convenience and price of a conference ticket should prove competitive.
If all else fails and your organisation refuses to consider investing in your development by paying for you to attend the conference, even for a single day, consider paying for it yourself – and use the opportunity to make new contacts to broaden your career opportunities. An employer who does not want you to develop, or to keep your information up to date, may not be the best to support your career.
The Internal Audit Conference 2025 takes place on 8-9 October at The QEII Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London SW1P 3EE. The programme and some keynote speakers are already available and more detail is being added constantly. Contact the Chartered IIA events team for special rates and for more information.